New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity

Haile‐Selassie, Yohannes; Gibert, Luís; Melillo, Stephanie M.; Ryan, Timothy M.; Alene, Mulugeta; Deino, Alan L.; Levin, Naomi E.; Scott, G. R.; Saylor, Beverly Z.

doi:10.1038/nature14448

Cited by 108 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Finally, the Woranso-Mille site has yielded multiple hominin species, including A. afarensis, Australopithecus deyiremeda, some intermediate forms between A. anamensis and A. afarensis, and possibly another species to which the enigmatic foot from Burtele belongs (17)(18)(19)(20). At this point, it is not clear to which of these species the reported carbon values pertain or whether the values reflect the range for multiple species.…”

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confidence: 91%

Stable isotopes serving as a checkpoint

Alemseged

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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confidence: 91%

Stable isotopes serving as a checkpoint

Alemseged

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…deyiremeda all fall outside the range of variation of Au. afarensis in different ways (24,25,56,58). In some morphological comparisons (25,58), variation in Au.…”

Section: Were Pliocene Hominins Diverse or Oversplit?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…afarensis in different ways (24,25,56,58). In some morphological comparisons (25,58), variation in Au. afarensis is estimated from a reasonably sized sample (n = 6 to >15) and differences reach the level of statistical significance, despite the extremely small samples of the other species.…”

Section: Were Pliocene Hominins Diverse or Oversplit?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both Au. deyiremeda and K. platyops exhibit an anteriorly positioned zygomatic (commonly considered a component of facial buttressing) (24,25,58). Furthermore, Au.…”

Section: Phylogenetic Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The discovery of the Burtele partial foot from Ethiopia (23), the naming of Kenyanthropus platyops from Kenya (24), and more recently Australopithecus deyiremeda (25), all from the middle Pliocene and contemporaneous with Au. afarensis, challenge the concept of the single-species hypothesis.…”

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confidence: 99%

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The Pliocene hominin diversity conundrum: Do more fossils mean less clarity?

Haile‐Selassie

Melillo

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Recent discoveries of multiple middle Pliocene hominins have raised the possibility that early hominins were as speciose as later hominins. However, debates continue to arise around the validity of most of these new taxa, largely based on poor preservation of holotype specimens, small sample size, or the lack of evidence for ecological diversity. A closer look at the currently available fossil evidence from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad indicate that Australopithecus afarensis was not the only hominin species during the middle Pliocene, and that there were other species clearly distinguishable from it by their locomotor adaptation and diet. Although there is no doubt that the presence of multiple species during the middle Pliocene opens new windows into our evolutionary past, it also complicates our understanding of early hominin taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships.If one looks back over the controversies of human evolution, they have one element in common: new discoveries, theories, methods came along which no one in the controversy anticipated. The "facts" changed, and consequently people were not right or wrong in any simple way.S. L. Washburn and R. L. Ciochon, 1974 (1) New fossil discoveries and analytical methods that have proliferated during the last few decades have fundamentally changed how we study and interpret hominin fossils and understand human evolution. The discovery and subsequent naming of Australopithecus afarensis in the late 1970s was one of the major milestones in paleoanthropology (2). Its discovery not only pushed the record of hominins to earlier than 3 million years ago (Ma) (2), but also demonstrated the antiquity of human-like bipedality (3). However, the taxonomic homogeneity of the Au. afarensis hypodigm has been questioned since its naming (4-7), even though the Hadar fossil sample appears to be no more variable than other living ape species (8-11). A consensus emerged during the 1980s in which Au. afarensis, dated to between 3.7 and 2.9 Ma, was considered to be the sole early hominin species older than 3 Ma, largely supported by the lack of fossil evidence to indicate otherwise.When Australopithecus bahrelghazali was named in 1995 based on an approximately 3.5-Ma partial mandible from Chad (12), it was quickly dismissed as a geographic variant of Au. afarensis (13-15). The initial descriptions of Ardipithecus ramidus (16) and Australopithecus anamensis (17), followed by the naming of even earlier hominin species, such as Orrorin tugenensis (18), Ardipithecus kadabba (19,20), and Sahelanthropus tchadensis (21), extended the antiquity of our lineage as far back as >6 Ma. These early hominins initially appeared to show no temporal or spatial overlap, and hence reinforced the idea that the early phases of hominin evolution were characterized by phenetic continuity and phyletic gradualism, with only one hominin species existing in a region at any given time >3 Ma (e.g., ref. 22; see discussions below).The discovery of the Burtele partial foot from Ethiopia (23), the naming of Kenyan...

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Human Evolution: Early Radiations

Wood

McRae

2021

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

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We interpret the early radiations within the hominin clade as including all of the taxa in genera other than Homo . While the taxa in Australopithecus , Kenyanthropus and Paranthropus are almost certainly hominins, others in the genera Ardipithecus , Orrorin and Sahelanthropus may not be hominins but belong in one or more closely related clades. All of the taxa in Australopithecus , Kenyanthropus and Paranthropus have brain sizes one third (or less) to one half the average size of later Homo , postcranial skeletons that combine adaptations for bipedalism with retention of upper limbs adapted for climbing, and postcanine teeth that are relatively larger than those of chimpanzees and bonobos, covered by enamel that is thicker than that seen in chimpanzees and bonobos. Some (e.g. Paranthropus boisei ) have exceptionally large postcanine teeth with hyper‐thick enamel cusps. Key Concepts Morphological and genetic features separate humans from our closest relatives in the genus Pan The earliest potential hominins retain many ‘ape‐like’ features such as arms adapted for climbing All early hominins have chewing teeth that are relatively larger, and with thicker enamel, than in the genus Pan By the time of Australopithecus afarensis , hominins were fully bipedal A radiation of megadont and hyper‐megadont hominins ( Paranthropus ) is found in eastern and southern Africa

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New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity

Cited by 108 publications

References 31 publications

Stable isotopes serving as a checkpoint

Stable isotopes serving as a checkpoint

The Pliocene hominin diversity conundrum: Do more fossils mean less clarity?

Human Evolution: Early Radiations

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